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October 15, 2008By Donna Hogan EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE Arizona State University plans to make room for up to 10 Mexican high-tech start-up companies in its offices at SkySong, the in-progress makeover of Scottsdale's former Los Arcos Mall into an ASU research center. Scottsdale will get the sixth version of the Mexican "technology business accelerator," dubbed TechBA, said Julia Rosen, ASU's associate vice president for innovation and entrepreneurship. It will be mostly funded by the Mexican government, she said.

ASU will kick in new university staff positions to run the operation, Rosen said, but she did not know how many of those jobs would be created or when. The university plans to launch the program in January with a series of classes and seminars aimed at culling potential Mexican start-ups to fill the business-accelerator slots. ASU can host up to 15 hopefuls for the preliminary portion of the program, which is expected to continue through April, she said. Later the university and the Mexican government will select up to 10 of the best companies to move into the accelerator, she said.

The university occupies one floor in one of the two SkySong buildings built so far, and it is housing several international start-up companies already in the facilities, Rosen said. Besides providing office space for those selected to join TechBA, ASU will offer consulting, contacts and other support services to help the companies get a firm footing and find customers. The idea, she said, is to help the Mexican businesses become successful. If they succeed, they may do business with U.S. companies or eventually set up some U.S.-based operations and potentially hire U.S. workers, she said.Mexico is Arizona's biggest trading partner, said Barry Broome, president of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and the state has a big stake in keeping the Mexican economy humming.

"There is really no such thing as a U.S. capital market or a U.S. job market," he said. "This should be a profit center for the state and for the region.""There is really no such thing as a U.S. capital market or a U.S. job market, this should be a profit center for the state and for the region." Barry Broome, president of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council

THE PROGRAM

The TechBA Program, created by the Ministry of the Economy and the United States-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC), has the purpose to support top-tier Mexican companies in bringing their innovative technology, products and services to global markets. The TechBA acceleration process facilitates access to market, financial, managerial skills and technological resources of highly entrepreneurial ecosystems.As a result of this process, companies rapidly increase their value and become players in the international technology business markets.To coordinate this effort, the Ministry chose FUMEC as a strategic partner that brings into the program strong technology and business networks.

In the case of TechBA - Madrid, the Ministry partners with ACELTEC, a spin off of FUMEC. Another key element of the TechBA Program has been the selection of ecosystems with high innovation drive, such as Silicon Valley in California, Austin in Texas , Montreal in Quebec and Madrid in Spain. In each region, TechBA partners with recognized organizations that have a proven track of successful results in accelerating innovative companies. Today our partners include The Enterprise Network of Silicon Valley, IC2 from the University of Texas at Austin, Inno-centre in Montreal and Parque Científico de Madrid in Spain. Results related to the acceleration process are the following:

Companies have secured investment or closed deals for around $28.36 million usd.

48 companies have incorporated in the U.S.

High value direct jobs created since their incorporation to TechBA represents 8% of total employment

Companies income related to each new job is $70,000 USD.

Mexico's Commitment to Technology

With a population of nearly 105 million people, and with exports to the U.S. of more than 220 billion dollars, Mexico is the third largest trading partner of the U.S. In 2004, Mexico ranked as the 8th exporting economy[1] in the world, ranking first from all Latin America.Mexico has more than 125 R&D institutions and 1,200 universities whose student population has nearly doubled in 10 years. As a result of this effort, Mexico has an extensive and highly-qualified pool of talented professionals who have developed top tier technological and entrepreneurial skills.

The international growth and development of premiere Mexican companies such as CEMEX, a global cement supplier, Grupo Carso, one of Latin America’s largest telecommunication conglomerates, Grupo Modelo, a world class brewery company, Maseca, a large food producer, and Bimbo, a multinational commercial bakery, is also a sign of the increasing presence of Mexico in global markets.

To foster Mexico’s capacity to compete in world markets, the Ministry of the Economy has established programs to further strengthen the more technological regions that are becoming the source of new technology based companies, aided by financial support from the Ministry’s SME FUND (FONDO PYME).(1)Considering as one economy the 15 member countries of the European UnionData Source: Ministry of the Economy of Mexico, data from Banco de México

Program Objectives

To provide an environment that encourages the international development of Mexican technology based companies by helping them to:

Capitalize their intellectual property and business skills by reorienting their capacity to global markets.

Interact with high-tech ecosystems in order to reach milestones in terms of sales, alliances and access to angel and venture capital investment.

To incorporate Mexican high value added companies as part of integrated, global supply chains.

To strengthen business intelligence mechanisms and interactions between organizations and individuals as they create new business and collaboration opportunities.

TechBA focuses on innovative companies related to high-tech sectors with strong presence in the global technology markets, such as:

Information and Wireless Technologies

Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

Life Sciences

Microsystems, including Semiconductors and Mems

Advanced Materials

Robotics

Multimedia, Animation and Education Services

Acceleration Process

To ensure the quality and readiness of the companies that become members of TechBA, the Ministry of the Economy of Mexico and FUMEC organize a once-a-year selection process where a committee, comprised of international and Mexican experts in business, technology and venture capital, select the best companies. As part of this process, the companies participate in workshops to receive guidance on how technology businesses are conducted in the international arena. They also undergo a validation of their value proposition using the “TechBA Market Finder methodology”.

The selected companies then move to one of the TechBAs to access venture capital, capture key customers and establish partnerships and major alliances. These companies receive financial awards by the Ministry of the Economy of Mexico. Some of them have also closed first round investments and are recipients of grants and funds from institutions such as CONACYT and NAFIN.

The Acceleration Program is about Business Development, targeting enterprises which want to increase their sales and expand their operations into new markets in a global context. The Program´s objective is to support and coach Mexican Technology SME´s, guiding them to begin their international business development, taking advantage of markets and obtaining technological and financial resources in the most dynamic international ecosystems. Benefits for participating companies are:

Basic Office Infrastructure – Participating companies are assigned to a physical space in TechBA, in order to stablish their commercial office abroad, having access also to meeting rooms and facilities wich will allow them to start operations in the new market.

Training – Annual training program (on site and remote), oriented to help companies to get involved with the global business ecosystem, attending subjects such as intellectual property, legal affairs (regulations and certifications), venture capital processes, etc. Allowing participating companies to strengthen their global vision development in these kind of environments.

Specialized Consulting – A consulting group is assigned for advising, coaching and guiding participating companies to integrate an action plan, to improve their value offer and to establish connections within the same consulting group’s local contacts network in the region.

Access to relationships and positioning Networks – Arrangement of activities and events intended to allow participating companies to promote their participation in the program, focusing in promoting their value offer among potential customers in the region. Besides, TechBA is continuously developing new relationships in every region where an accelerator has been established, always looking for benefits for participating companies, expanding contact networks and helping to improve relationships with actors who really can contribute with the international strategy of participating companies.

Pre-Acceleration

Pre-Acceleration Program is a four-month intensive program in business development, focused in enterprises willing to explore expansion opportunities heading toward new markets, interested also in developing intellectual property oriented to innovation in a global context. The Program includes creation of local human resources structure for each state, with a group of specialized consultants supporting participating enterprises in the process.

TechBA will also collaborate with a State Pre-Acceleration Coordinator who acts like a facilitator, establishing relationships and ensuring the right execution of planned actions oriented to accomplish the program´s objectives.Pre-Acceleration main objective is to identify marketing opportunities in an international context besides of integrating an action plan oriented to improve opportunity areas detected in Mexico and to impulse international development of the company in areas such as: technology, market and human and financial resources.

The Program is designed to execute activities for four months, including two working visits to a specific TechBA (one week each time). The first week the company will attend an induction workshop about global business and the second week, is for the closure event in order to have interviews with potential customers and to validate the action plan that was integrated during the program